In Spanish we have lots of dishes whose names refer to the main ingredients it has. For example "arroz con pollo" (rice and chicken), "arroz con leche" (rice and milk), or "pollo con papas" (chicken ...

Jim Breen's edict translates 大さじ simply as (American) tablespoon, but I'm reading directions on a green tea package that says 一人大さじ一杯 and it seems like a lot of tea for a single 湯のみ. I know there are ...

Google returns "Hikari no tabemono" is it ok?
I need the meaning: "food made of/with light", to name a line of products which are made with natural and purified ingredients, like within an "spiritual ...

Two of Japan's native wild animals are the きつね fox and たぬき raccoon dog.
Interestingly there are also noodle dishes apparently named after each. (Not containing the meat of those animals!)
The terms ...

I know that the traditional Japanese style pubs that serve food as well as drinks are called "居酒屋".
But once a few years ago in Yamagata city, and last night here in Kagoshima city, I ended up in a ...

About five nights ago I went out with a local friend to a traditional Okinawan club in Naha.
We were of course drinking 泡盛{あわもり} (awamori) with water and ice.
But the girl working there had a drink ...

I'm thinking about translating a recipe in Japanese and I'm kind of astonished that there isn't a wikipedia page for psyllium seed husk powder, but there's a brief one for psyllium. I'm not sure if ...

I found out there is a special kind of Okinawan tofu called 豆腐よう.
According to EDIC/WWWJDIC it can also be written as "豆腐餻" and "唐芙蓉".
"餻" seems to mean "cakes, pastry", but considering that this is ...

高麗胡椒 is a condiment originating in Okinawa that consists of chilis immersed in awamori.
I don't know how to type it, especially the long vowels. I can get neither the katakana nor the kanji spelling ...

I've just noticed that the usual word for "peanut" or "peanuts" in Japanese is "ピーナッツ" (pīnattsu), but the first spelling I found, from looking in the translation table in the English Wiktionary was ...

I bought these plums at a supermarket in Kyoto today and noticed that they were labeled プルーン (prune?). According to jisho.org, a plum is a プラム. Is it common to not distinguish between prunes and plums ...

According to my dictionary, the following words all mean the same thing: "Dinner":
[夜]{よる}ご[飯]{はん}, [晩]{ばん}ご[飯]{はん}, [晩飯]{ばんめし}, [晩食]{ばんしょく}, [夕]{ゆう}ご[飯]{はん}, [夕飯]{ゆうはん(ゆうめし)}, [夕食]{ゆうしょく}
A similar ...

I have trouble understanding the concept of 野菜ソムリエ.
I have searched Wikipedia and others but I can't understand if it is the name of a media job, or the name of a restaurant job.
I feel it might be ...

I've just found out that there's a couple of words for milk, and that they have slightly different meanings. Which one would I have with my Weetbix in a "viking style" breakfast in Niseko?
Based on ...

The term "onigiri" covers all kinds of rice balls, with or without filling, and with or without nori seaweed around it.
Is there a specific term that only covers the one class of onigiri available in ...

When dining at Yoshinoya I never know how to ask for the size meal I want.
Their sizes are 並, 大, and 特.
I only know that "大" means big, but it also has two readings so I have no idea whether to ask ...

Last night I had dinner in a ramen restaurant in northern Japan and was surprised to read the katakana "ライス" (raisu) on the menu. This is obviously the English word "rice" borrowed. But what kind of ...

This is a word I learned by reading and not by studying or in conversation with Japanese.
After learning the kana years ago I had occasion to fly with JAL and the pre-meal snack was a little packet ...

In answer to my question on the difference between "gyudon" and "gyumeshi" I learned that "meshi" just means cooked rice. But I thought "gohan" meant cooked rice, so please, what is the difference?
I ...

It seems that there are (at least) three words for "tuna" in Japanese:
"マグロ" / "鮪" / "まぐろ" (maguro) - Seems to be the native name for the creature and used at least in sushi
"ツナ" (tsuna) - Seems to ...

I know that "わさび" 'wasabi' can also be written using kanji as "山葵" and that these two characters mean respectively "mountain" and "hollyhock", but hollyhock doesn't seem at first glance to be related.
...